A Wytheville judge pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run charge today in Powhatan County General District Court.
 
Michael Keith Blankenship, 44, was fined $200 and must pay restitution for the damage caused when he ran off the road, a court official said. She said the amount of that restitution has not been determined.
 
Blankenship was charged May 3 after witnesses identified him as the driver who left the scene of a crash that occurred about 5:15 p.m. April 27. The 2006 Subaru Forester ran off the side of Huguenot Springs Road and hit a telephone line box, Virginia State Police said. The car continued into an adjacent yard before crossing back over the road and hitting an embankment on the left side, uprooting a tree, police said.

Powhatan County is west of Richmond.

Today's court appearance was Blankenship's second in about two months on a driving-related charge.

He pleaded guilty May 20 in Smyth County General District Court to reckless driving and refusing to submit to a Breathalyzer test related to a separate incident.

Blankenship had been charged with driving under the influence after he was pulled over the evening of March 1 on Interstate 81 between Chilhowie and Marion, but the DUI charge was reduced. In that case, he was fined $100 and his license was suspended for a year.

Blankenship, a former Wythe County commonwealth's attorney who hears cases primarily in Wythe County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, sits in the 27the Judicial District, which covers Montgomery, Floyd, Giles, Pulaski, Carroll, Wythe, Grayson and Bland counties and the cities of Radford and Galax.

Defense attorney Michael Barbour has said Blankenship has chosen to go on leave from his judgeship indefinitely.